Water skiing is a sport that has participants in more than 40 countries on at least four continents. In the United States alone, over 18 million persons a year participate in the sport of water skiing. Several water ski federations throughout the world actively promote competitions and demonstrations of water skiing involving high skill and significant athletic ability of the participants.
A significant hazard involved in highly advanced, competitive water skiing is the hazard to the boat occupants of a flying water ski handle which has been suddenly released. A typical advanced water skier can place as much as 1,000 pounds of tension on the water ski rope, which typically has a length of between 35 and 75 feet, with more expert skiers using shorter ropes within such range. Such tension can cause the rope to stretch as much as three inches, and the mounting pole on the boat can flex as much as 11/2 inches. When the skier falls and/or suddenly releases the handle, the resilience of the rope and pole causes the handle to fly forward toward the boat at a very high velocity. The handle, which weighs between 1 and 11/2 pounds, could thus travel forward and strike the boat and its occupants with the obvious potential for bodily injury and property damage. It is now conventional for professional competition ski boats to have an elaborate shield to protect the occupants from flying handles, but shields have not come into widespread use among water ski participants in non-competition situations.
It can thus be seen that there presently exists a need for increasing the safety of water skiing by preventing the acceleration of water ski handles to high speed upon release by the skier.